It’s better to practice a little than talk a lot

One thing that I have learnt from my tertiary education is that practice makes perfect. Theory is a fundamental part of education but so is in-service training. At the tertiary institute I attended I had the privilege of working for an organisation where I got to practice what I learnt first hand, it was a trial and error learning environment.

There is nothing worse than entering the working world for the first time and putting your knowledge to practice – the uncertainty of how things are relevant and how to apply what you have learnt. The number one problem students face when trying to enter the market is posed by the company’s interviewer…’How much experience do you have?’ For a student that would be none. However, employing an intern allows the student to learn and the company to teach and mould the student – at a fraction of the cost it would take to employ an experienced employee. The experience proved most valuable when both the learner and the company know what is expected from an intern.

There is a saying, ‘There are 3 frogs, and 1 decides to jump in the pond…how many are left? The answer is 3 because the 1 frog only decided but did nothing’. This goes to say about many situations, that people talk about making the change but somehow the actions just never follow. All talk...and we all know talk is cheap. The political world is much like this…but that is a topic for another day.

In my opinion, it is better to practice a little than talk a lot about a topic that one has no experience about because what is the conversation or your frame of reference really based on? The expression ‘practice makes perfect’ is a true reflection. A text book can only get you a piece of paper at the end of the day saying you have graduated, which is a starting point but practice, application of that knowledge and experience can take you to new heights…